![]() The ‘Means of Reprod… on Pierre van den Berghe’s ‘The E…ĭesmond Morris, Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal (New York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, 1967)įirst published in 1967, ‘ The Naked Ape’, a popular science classic authored by the already famous British zoologist and TV presenter Desmond Morris, belongs to the pre- sociobiological tradition of human ethology. ‘Alas Poor Darwin’:… on John R Baker’s ‘Race’: “A Remi… ‘Alas Poor Darwin’:… on Pierre van den Berghe’s ‘The E… Desmond Morris’s ‘The Naked Ape’: A Pre-Sociobiological Work of Human EthologyĪ Modern McCarthyism… on The Philosophy of Ragnar …Ī Modern McCarthyism… on Hitler, Hicks, Nietzsche and….Selwyn Raab’s ‘Five Families’: A History of the New York Mafia, Heavily Slanted Towards Recent Times.'That may not apply to humans, but it does explain why women use lipstick and blusher. It also explains why the buttocks of female chimpanzees are red. That's why not only emotional expressions, such as blushing when we are angry or shy, become more visible, but also sexual arousal. ![]() Kret explains, 'It is not without reason that it's the face and buttocks of female primates that are free of hair, which makes the skin and colour all the more visible.' Primates' eyes are perfectly set to distinguishing red tints. Blusher and lipstickĬolour also plays an important role. Not only this, through evolution women have acquired permanent, relatively large breasts that have some similarity to buttocks. In humans, concealing women's fertile period has the advantage that women can be attractive to men all of the time and can form close bonds, creating pairs, Kret explains. ![]() 'Faces are enormously important for people, and all the features of our faces are optimally arranged to be seen and to communicate. In the course of evolution, our faces have acquired more contrast: red lips, the whites of our eyes, eyebrows and a smooth skin that makes everything more visible.' Pairing Why is this knowledge important? This research provides a fundamental insight into the underlying mechanisms of how we recognise one another and how that may have changed in the course of evolution, Kret explains. Kret explains: 'We see faces so often and almost always upright that our brains have created a shortcut so that this category of images is recognised more efficiently and faster, but this only works if they are upright.' It makes no difference for buttocks we recognise them equally quickly regardless of whether they are upright or inverted. The human test candidates recognised the buttocks just as quickly whether the photos were upright or inverted. Shortcut in the brainĪs has been shown previously, humans recognise faces in an upright position faster than in an inverted position. 'This is a good indication that this category has priority over other categories of objects.' The study with apes took place in a primate institute in Japan where Kret worked for almost a year. The chimpanzees were faster in clicking on the buttocks when they were upright rather than inverted. They could indicate on a touchscreen which faces and buttocks they recognised. ![]() She had test candidates - humans and chimpanzees - look at photos of faces and buttocks both upright and inverted. Kret discovered that there is also a buttocks inversion effect in chimpanzees. When people see an object in a photo, for example a house, they recognise it just as rapidly (or slowly) whether or not the object is inverted. Faces are recognised by the brain faster than other objects, but this does not apply if the faces are inverted. Recognising a person at a glance translates in psychology to the well-known 'face inversion effect' (see image). The images were shown upright (left-hand column), or upside down (right-hand column). Examples of the stimuli used in the experiment (faces, buttocks and, as a control, feet of both humans and chimpanzees). For chimpanzees, the buttocks are therefore very important in recognising one another at a single glance. When females are in their monthly fertile period, the parts around the anus and vagina dilate and become dark pink in colour. Like the face in humans, chimpanzees derive important information about identity, attractiveness and health from the buttocks. The findings can be found in PLOS ONE on 30 November.Ĭredits video: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University Information about attractiveness and health The key question that Kret explored was whether chimpanzees process rear ends just as efficiently as we process faces. To date little is known about how humans and chimpanzees process information about faces and buttocks.
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